Server Version#:1.40.4.8679
Player Version#:
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 22H2
Hi,
Exploring my library, I noticed that Plex showed only 9 episodes of a TV series of 10 total episodes.
Episode 7 is missing.
Then I checked the subdirectory of that series on my PC and there are all ten episodes.
After investigating the problem, I found that the missing episode was merged into another library item (under the name of a movie that has absolutely nothing to do with the aforementioned series), together with many other videos (movies, series episodes).
Those videos are completely unrelated: they’re from different series/movies, stored in different subdirectories of my HDD, they have different sizes, different codecs, different original filenames. A few of them have no metadata at all.
And… why Plex “chose” that episode n.7, and only that, (which has the exact same characteristics as the other 9 episodes of the same series) to be merged with the other unrelated items?
The library is configured as “Other Videos”, the agent I use is “Personal Media” and the scanner is “Plex Video Files Scanner”.
(This is because of the way my collection is set up. Everything in the same library. The only thing that matters to me is having all the video items available with the same name of filename appearing in Windows, and with their embedded or external subtitles available.
Other metadata don’t interest me).
Any idea to completely prevent Plex from merging items… and make it just leaving things as they are?
At least in part an issue with improper folder organization and file naming.
Series episodes cannot possibly get merged into a movie record, unless there were 2 major mistakes made:
movies and tv shows are stored together in a folder that has been added to a Plex movie library. Don’t do that. Strictly separate the two content types by folder and only add the folder which contains the right content type to the right Plex library.
If you are expecting Plex to treat a series like a proper series, use a library type of “series” and the naming rules for tv shows. You cannot merge movies and tv shows in the same library.
Using an “Other Videos” library does not circumvent this rule, because an Other Videos library is just a movie-type library without metadata matching.
If you are already on server version 1.40.4, you should convert your Other Videos library to use the Scanner “Plex Video Files” and Agent “Plex Personal Media”.
Sometimes it’s hard to separate content types (some tv series have a movie, some cartoons/anime have feature films/OAV that I want to keep in the same folder) but I understand why Plex does it.
I’ll try to change scanner and agent, first of all.
But this still doesn’t explain why episode 7 (and just that) of that series was randomly “picked” by Plex and wrongly merged into that multiple-videos item. This episode is named exactly as all the other 9 episodes of that series (the only difference is number 7 instead of n. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10).
Strange behaviour, I’ll investigate if there are more merged items like that in my library.
(Anyway it would be excellent if there was an option to choose whether or not to allow merging videos in a library/collection).
These can be usually added into the Specials season. You will be able to find most of them in the Specials if you look them up on TheTVDB.com
Which also largely negates the necessity to create an Other Videos library for Anime.
